First, page 17:
#97, #101, and #102 are recharted off previous embroidery projects. The others are new, more doodles devised while I was preparing this collection. Most of the coming pages feature at least one fill as elaborate as #100. They’d be good for using in large, outlined areas, or as stand-alone fields on a sampler like those in the lower half of the famous Jane Bostocke sampler.
GIMP Chart Inga Tutorial 104 – Building the Design and Mask (aka Donut) Layers.
In the last post we learned how to start a new layer. We need two more. First use LAYER-New Layer to create another new one. Name this one “PATTERN HERE”.
Now it gets interesting. You’ll see three layers in the Layers navigation window. Background, Dots and PATTERN HERE. PATTERN HERE is shaded. Click on the layer named “Dots.” It should now be shaded. We want to create a new layer, cloned from this one. So, making sure that the Dots layer is shaded in the navigation window, use LAYER-Duplicate Layer. You’ll notice a new one named “Dots Copy” added to the navigation window. In that window, click on Dots Copy and drag it to the top of the stack. Your Layer navigation window should now look like this:
For the sake of our sanity, let’s rename “Dots Copy.” In the navigation window, right click on Dots Copy and choose “Edit Layer Attributes. This will open a window that will allow you to give the layer a new name. I suggest “Donuts.”
You now have four layers: Donuts, PATTERN HERE, Dots and Background.
Let’s create our donuts. Make sure that Donuts is highlighted in the Layer navigation window. Then choose the Select by Color Tool from the Toolbox window. This is the one that looks like little stack of blue, red and green blocks, with a finger pointing to the red one. With that tool highlighted, click on any dot. ALL of the dots will begin flickering. (That’s good). You’ve now selected all of them.
To draw the donuts, we’re going to use a couple of special command. With your dots select use SELECT-Grow to get the Grow Selection dialog box. Type 1 in the “Grow Selection by” fill-in:
Now let’s exclude the dot at the center by using SELECT-Border to get the Border Selection dialog box. Type 1 in the “Border selection by” dialog box:
Now I suggest you zoom in more: VIEW-Zoom-8:1 (800%). This is what you’ll see:
We need to fill the newly constructed borders with white. Up in the Toolbox in the lower left corner of the top panel, you’ll see two overlapping Color Specification boxes, with a little 90-degree two-headed arrow next to them. Click on the little two-headed arrow. This will swap your previous background color (white) with your old foreground color (black). You are now ready to use the color white to fill the donuts. Choose the Flood Fill Tool (it looks like a spilling paint bucket) and place the tip of its arrow cursor inside one of the highlighted donuts. Click, and ALL of the donuts will be filled with the color white.
Now we need to get rid of the black dot in the center of each donut. Go back to the Select by Color tool (the stacked blue/red/green block and hand in the Toolbox), and click on one of the black dots. The outline around your donuts will disappear, and the dots will be highlighted again. With the dots highlighted, hit <ctrl>X. You will still see dots (they’re on the Dots layer), but the ones on the Donuts layer will now be gone. You can test this by clicking on the little eye next to the Dots layer in the Layer navigation window. Click the eye next to Dots, and the dots on your screen should disappear. Click it again and they’ll return. Remember to save your work.
We now have our base grid structure and mask all set up, and we are now ready to draw a design. But more on that tomorrow.
String-Or-Nothing 
